The Goa Government had, on May 8, vide a notification extended working hours of factories in Goa from 8 hours to 12 hours on account of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. However, the factory timings are now back to 8 hours from Monday, August 3 onwards after the said extension in timings under the Factories Act ended on July 31. The objective of the extension was to enable factories to cope with work pressure and put workers at ease amidst lockdown limitations.
As per a senior source from the Government, longer working hours were demanded by the local industries however, since there was no representation for its continuity, the facility has been terminated. Local industries, on the other hand, found longer working hours to not be beneficial as it involved payment of overtime for the additional hours of work put in by workers.
The number of working hours of factory workers cannot exceed 48 hours per week. Further, as per provisions of Section 59 of the Factories Act, 1948, where a worker works in a factory for more than 48 hours in any week, he shall in respect of overtime work, he entitled to wages at the rate of twice his ordinary rate of wages.
Earlier, the provisions of the Factories Act have been tweaked by a number of states such as Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, etc by granting longer timings of up to 12 hours to factories to enhance the manufacturing process.
